Deconstructed Music

This is a practice tool that should only be used by students that are starting to read from their suzuki books or who have already established sold reading skill. Please check with your teacher first.

This practice tool is designed:

To help with memorization

To aid learning and memorize bowings.

To break pieces into small units, visually.

Deconstructed music can be used with any piece. In this example, I’ve used Minuet 3 from Suzuki violin book 1.

How does it work?

Each piece is dived into one measure units. Those measures are pasted to a card that is hole punched and attached to a binder ring.

Play each card 3 times with your goal in mind (bowing, memorization, etc). Do this for each card and each goal until you have mastered all of your goals.

NOTE: For bowings, you’ll want to make in the direction you start on for each measure

Then, move to two cards at once, check to see if you can play two card units meeting your goals (bowings, memorization). Move to 4 cards and then to whole phrases. Repeat until you have whole phrases and then the whole piece.

Puzzle Game: You can also use the cards as a puzzle. Mix them up and see if you can arrange all of the measures in the correct order.

How do I make the Deconstructed Music Cards?

STEP 1: Gather your materials:

A photo copy of the piece

Hole punch

Binder ring

Glue

Scissors

Pen/pencil

Sentence strips or colored index cards.

STEP 2: Cut the cards.

I folded my sentence strips into quarters so that they are equal sizes. Equal sized are key. If you are using 3×5 index cards cut them in half. I used a different color for each section of the piece. I find this helps with memorization.

STEP 3: Number the back of the cards with measure numbers.

This way, if your cards come out of order you can quickly put them back. Or, if you play the puzzle game you can figure out the answer it stumped. Originally, I put the numbers on the front but then has the puzzle idea. So, I moved the numbers to the back– yay!! erasable pens!

STEP 4: Cut up your sheet music copy. Glue one measure onto a card.

I cut one line off at a time and then I cut off one measure at a time so I wouldn’t get anything mixed up. I glued one measure on a card at a time, again so I wouldn’t get anything mixed up! Let the cards dry.

I think the line on the sentence strip is very helpful to keep the measures lined up. This way when you put the cards on a music stand it flows well in one line.

STEP 5: Hole punch each card.

You can do this while they are drying.

STEP 6: Create a title card.

This way if you make multiple deconstructed pieces you can find the one you want. It also gives a place for you to write your name.